It’s usually pretty easy for me to be able to sit down in front of the television and watch a DVD of a studio film all the way though, no matter how bad it is. Usually because the production value is good. In the case of Stay Alive, well lets say I had some trouble getting into this one.
The plot is kind of simple and straight to the point. A bunch of friends whom are obsessed with playing video games, all get together to play this underground video game titled: you guessed it; “Stay Alive”. The whole story behind the game is that if the player gets killed within the video game, that they will die in real life. When this starts happening, the player race against time to solve clues and try to finish the game before they get killed in the game. So basically they need to stay alive and finish the game.
First off the script to this film was so out in space, I actually had to go back to a few scenes to fully grasp the whole concept of this film. Second the dialogue was so blah, that I didn’t care for any of the characters. In fact I didn’t care for any of the characters in this film at all, every character in this film could of been killed by the “video game killer” and I wouldn’t have even cared. And last, we all earned with House of the Dead that adding footage of a video game does not go over well. In this film we get a lot of video game footage to go along with the film, and it just gets, well; plan and simple very annoying.
The acting in this film is alright, it’s nothing special. I was hoping that maybe Frankie Muniz was going to surprise me and actually step up on his acting skills instead of being just the kid from “Malcolm in the Middle” a television show I only watched once in my life. But every time I see him in a role that all I can think of. He still looks young in every movie he’s in and it’s was hard for me to take this film seriously with him in it.
The special effects in this film felt a bit out of place, I can’t say they were bad, but their was nothing original about any of the effects or the kill scenes. Some of the stuff may seem original, but trust me, if you’ve seen Hellraiser, the effects are somewhat similar. We get some decent make-up effects, but the overall feel of the effects in this film, blended with the video games, made the feel seem like one of these movies with to much CGI effects. And that ruined it for me.
Overall, Stay Alive is that film that made it into movie theaters where every horror fan will agree with me that it should of been sitting in direct to video hell. There are so many good movies like Lucky Mckee’s The Woods that should of has a theatrical release, and this is a film that gets one. I don’t get it! As far as I’m concerned you might just want to pass this one up. If you like films about killer video games it might be up your ally. But if your a true fan of horror films I’m probably guessing that you won’t like this flick.
– Horror Bob
- Interview with J.R. Bookwalter - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
